


All We Have Is Now

by Lohrendrell



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Classical Music, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Musicians, Naruto Plays the Cello, Or rather ambivalent ending?, Sad Ending, Teenage Drama, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 21:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lohrendrell/pseuds/Lohrendrell
Summary: "It’s the first time he’s met with the quiet side of Naruto and, if he were to be completely honest, it’s somewhat distressing, but not surprising. Finally, Sasuke thinks. It was bound to happen at some point. Naruto could fool everyone around him, but he never fooled Sasuke."





	All We Have Is Now

**Author's Note:**

> This actually started as a prompt from last year's SNS Secret Santa. My first thought was to write this version as a gift, but I thought it didn't fit very well with the whole Christmas thingy, so I wrote a [shorter, happier](http://lohrendrell.tumblr.com/post/154912726272/sns-secret-santa) version. This is the monster that had been stuck with me for more than six months, I hope you'll enjoy.
> 
> Thank you so, so, sooo much for my beloved editor A! Without you I couldn't even BREATHE, let alone write. Ily! ❤
> 
> I'd like to dedicate this fic for **Essenceof9** , who is a fighter and a winner. You're too amazing to not win your fights, my friend. Wishing you well <3

He checks the curtains to see if they're evenly spread on the window, but not so much that the natural light outside is blocked. He checks the duvets in both beds, making sure they're comfy-looking and matching in that way that makes you think two people actually sleep there. He checks the fluffy floor mat again, worrying that it might have gotten dirty since he last vacuumed it, one hour ago.

Naruto is anxious. He never had to clean up a place so thoroughly before — he never really cared if the place he was living in was anything more than acceptable for sleeping; it was just a place, after all — but this time he felt it was his duty to tidy up for the new student arriving this weekend. He never had a roommate, but he imagines this is the least he can do to welcome someone, right?

Finally, he steps back and admires the entire room. It looks perfect, as far as he can tell. Naruto hopes he is like everyone else at least in that aspect — he’s growing tired of being _different_ — and he will know what to look for when checking for cleanliness.

To try and calm his anxiousness down, he sits on the chair in his side of the room and reaches for the worn out case he keeps his cello in. Playing always calms him down, but he's shaking so much, the music trembles on its way out of the strings, almost as if it were another person and not Naruto playing the instrument he knows so well. He plays Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor very lightly so as to not tear any string apart, trying not to feel too excited for the afternoon to come (and trying not to be irritated by the precarious way he's playing) and so that, if worst comes true, he will not crumble too much in disappointment. It's kinda hard.

\- -

It's one o'clock in the afternoon when Sasuke is awaken by the loud banging in his door. Each bang is like pain bullets directly inside his skull and he squirms; he’s got the worst hangover, fuck. He tries to ignore it, but after several minutes, his head cannot take it anymore and he gets up.

Shisui's judgmental eyes travel up and down his figure when Sasuke finally opens the door. "Looks like you had some party yesterday night.” He pauses, waiting for Sasuke to reply, which doesn’t happen. “I hope you're feeling the consequences of your choices by now. Every last one."

Sasuke wants to punch Shisui right in the middle of his arrogant cold face. However, he just grunts and closes his eyes, leaning on the door, not saying anything.

"Come on." Shisui yanks the door, as if he expected Sasuke to fall asleep right there, causing Sasuke to nearly fall flat on his face. That fucker, Sasuke thinks. "Go take a shower before we leave," Shisui is saying. "You should've been in the conservatory by now."

"I'm not going," Sasuke says, simply and sure. Shisui was turning to leave, but turns back and stares him down with semi-closed eyes and a dangerous smile.

"Yes, you are."

Sasuke defies that look. "I'm not doing anything I don't want to."

Shisui is silent for a few moments. Then, still smiling that smile of his, walks to Sasuke, who focuses on staying proud, legs apart, chest out in defiance. "As long as you're still underage…" Shisui says, slowly. Their chests bump; Sasuke tries not to, but feels himself taking a couple of steps backward when Shisui doesn't stop walking forward. "As long as you're under my tutelage, Sasuke..." Shisui holds Sasuke's cheeks in one hand; Sasuke can only stare. "You _will_ do as I say."

Sasuke has a shit-ton of comebacks full of curse words and accusations that have been boiling inside him since the better part of his childhood, but none of them find the path away from his mouth. After several long moments, Shisui lets go of his cheeks and steps away from his bedroom. "Go take a shower. Don't worry about packing, it's already arranged."

"Don't touch my guitar."

"I didn't. It's in the living room, where you drunkenly threw it when you finally found your way home."

Shisui has his back to him, so Sasuke uses that advantage to lift his middle finger at his back. He doesn't know how, but Shisui lifts a middle finger at him without even turning around. "Hurry up," Shisui says. "I have to prepare for a meeting on Monday, and you have to get familiar to your new school. You can have breakfast after you shower."

Sasuke wants to say he doesn't want any food Shisui provides, but it's not true; his head is killing him and his stomach is growling. He feels like shit and surely looks worse, and a shower never fails to bring him back anew. He uses the last minutes he has in that house to disregard Shisui’s orders, taking a long warm bath instead of a shower.

It's almost four o'clock when Sasuke grabs his most precious possession, his electric guitar, and finally makes it out of the house. Shisui is waiting for him in his car, reading a book. He doesn't look annoyed or frustrated despite Sasuke's deliberate acts of disobedience, which, in turn, makes Sasuke annoyed and frustrated – with both of them. Shisui is sending Sasuke away to a music conservatory for the summer break and the whole next semester and he doesn't even care. So much so he looks the most relaxed he’s ever looked in months, no, years, even after Sasuke's incessant bitching and rules-breaking for the past three weeks.

Well, if he doesn't even care, Sasuke doesn't, either.

He carefully puts his guitar in the back seat and then hops in the passenger seat. He doesn't utter a word while Shisui starts the car, putting his feet up on the dashboard. Shisui doesn't comment, but turns on the radio on the classical music station Sasuke once confessed he liked (and regretted it).

The trip is boring and uneventful. Sasuke doesn't feel like bitching, he just wants to be left alone. The classical music serves to help him dive in his own mind, but does nothing to diminish the anger he is feeling.

When they arrive at Konoha School of Music, a couple is there to receive them. They introduce themselves as Tsunade and Jiraiya, the President of the institution and the Head Principal, respectively. Sasuke imagines Shisui is paying a lot of money to have him accepted there, for one: Konoha is a famous conservatory, well known for the high costing tuition and the difficulties to get accepted; two: he's never heard of normal schools accepting students in the middle of the summer like that.

They show them both the place. Konoha Academy is huge. It has several concert halls big enough to pack entire professional orchestras, along with decent individual and group training rooms and the most incredible library Sasuke has ever seen. "Like it?" Shisui asks Sasuke. He has a knowing smile in his lips and Sasuke realizes it’s because of the way he was staring at the library. Sasuke doesn't want to let him know even if he does already, so he doesn't answer him.

They walk for at least half an hour before Tsunade leads them to her office. "We focus on musical education, as you can see," she tells Shisui, "but rest assured your protégé won't miss the last year of high school." Shisui nods, as if it were the one thing he expected to hear before signing some papers. Sasuke guesses it's his final registration.

After, they walk Shisui to his car, where Jiraiya helps them pull out Sasuke's bags. Sasuke tells him not to touch his guitar. He thinks he'll meet the old man's fury at his rudeness, but Jiraiya just laughs. "I'll be putting your stuff in your new room, then, boy," Jiraiya says. He pulls a small writing pad from his breast pocket and writes something. "Here." He gives Sasuke a piece of paper with the number of a room and a badly drawn map to get there.

Jiraiya walks inside the building with Sasuke's two bags, leaving Sasuke and Shisui alone in front of the car. Suddenly the rage is back on Sasuke's body, even though he's actually looking forward for the academia now.

"Sasuke," Shisui starts, tentatively. Sasuke tries to cut him off, but Shisui ignores him, as usual. "I know you're mad at me. I know you think I'm doing this out of spite, or to get rid of you. That couldn't be further from the truth."

If it's not it, then why, Sasuke wants to ask. All his life, Shisui has been like this: he says and does things Sasuke doesn't understand, nor does he explain his reasons, and all Sasuke gets are assumptions and wrong guesses. Always wrong guesses. He has been living under Shisui's custody since he was seven, since... _that_ happened. Between nightmares and a few shitty sessions of therapy, Sasuke thought he had gained a brother after losing another and an entire family altogether, but that wasn't the case. After ten years, it frustrates Sasuke that he still isn't considered good enough to be let in Shisui's way of thinking. Then Shisui goes and sends him away.

"Believe me when I say, Sasuke—" Shisui puts his hands on Sasuke's shoulders and squeezes them. "—everything I do, I do thinking what's best for you." He smiles. Sasuke doesn't answer; he doesn't want to let Shisui know he’s trying to take those words at heart, but when Shisui pulls him into a hug, he doesn't stop him. "Be careful. Don't do anything stupid. Good luck." Shisui finishes with a brief kiss on Sasuke's forehead.

Next thing he knows, Shisui is in his car, the car is pulling out, away, away, and Sasuke is left alone. Again. He feels all he has for now are his guitar and his resentment, and with those always reliable companies, he turns around and goes inside the school, trying to follow the crude map in his hands.

\- -

Naruto stares at the trees moving outside along with the breeze, the window shades only a quarter closed. It is almost sundown now. The anxiousness he had been feeling all day slowly gave place to building disappointment. He spent his entire day sitting in a chair waiting for that door to open, but it didn't. He should have prepared for that, he supposes. Jiraiya did say there wasn't any confirmation yet, just the prospect of them accepting a new student.

It is a very particular situation, he told Naruto.

It is fine, though. At least he now has a room all tidied up just for himself, and he actually spent all day practicing, which is always good. Naruto straightens his back again and adjusts his cello better. For a lack of better things to do and to keep his mind away from bad thoughts, he starts playing again, The Swan from The Carnival of the Animals.

\- -

Turns out the conservatory is bigger than first impression, and more crowded than it first seemed. The dorm building is the last one, closest to the forest that surround Konoha Academy and the furthest from the entrance. Sasuke has no trouble finding his dormitory, but he had to cross the entire school just to get there.

Sasuke finds his room: the last one on the corridor of the third floor. He knows it's his because he recognizes his bags in front of the door; the head principal must have put it there. When he gets to the door, he stops. He hears faintly a song being played inside. Sasuke didn't know he was going to have a roommate, but he doesn't really give it too much thought at that moment. He just stands by the door, listening to the melodic rhythm of the — what, violin? Cello? —, caught in the melody, not wanting to disturb the soloist inside. This is different than what Sasuke is used to, and he’s been in many garaga concerts, watched a lot of indie and alternative bands play, even played with a couple of rock bands before.

The music is short, though, and when it's over, Sasuke unceremoniously opens the door.

He finds inside a blond boy, around Sasuke's age, maybe a little older, with a dark wooden cello in a corner of the room. He must have been ready to start another song, but the music stops entirely when Sasuke enters, and Sasuke almost regrets doing it.

The boy stares, as if surprised for Sasuke being there. Didn't anyone tell him Sasuke was coming?

"A-ah, h-hi," the boy says, after a few seconds. "Hi."

"Hello," Sasuke greets, placing his guitar case on the other corner of the room, where he guesses is his side, and goes for the bags.

The boy gets up suddenly. He is almost a head taller than Sasuke. "Ah, let me help you," he says, and puts his cello aside in order to help Sasuke with one of the bags. He seems clumsy; he almost drops his instrument on the floor and then bumps his knee on one of the desks by the door in the process of (unnecessarily) trying to help Sasuke, and Sasuke doesn't know whether to roll his eyes or laugh at him.

"Thanks," he says nonetheless, politely, when the boy puts the second bag beside the first one, by Sasuke's bed.

"No problem." The boy smiles at him. It's a huge smile, all teeth and naivety and sparking eyes that light up all of his face, and Sasuke can't help but stare. The boy lifts his hand for a shake. "I'm Naruto," he says.

Sasuke shakes his hand. "Sasuke."

"Sasuke. Cool," Naruto says, still smiling, as if Sasuke's name is indeed the coolest thing in the world. His hand is warm, big, with long calloused fingers — the hand of a cellist, Sasuke thinks, and realizes he's still staring.

He turns around.

"Do you need help with something?" Naruto asks.

"No." Sasuke starts fumbling with the bags. He doesn't feel like unpacking neither taking out his trusty guitar. He feels Naruto's eyes on him.

"How about the room? Did you like it? Did they tell you you'd have a roommate?"

Sasuke shrugs. "It's a room. They didn't."

"Oh."

Sasuke finds a book he forgot he was reading in one of his bags. Shisui must have packed it. Sasuke isn't sure how to feel about it: angry that Shisui dared to pack for him or grateful that he was thoughtful enough to put that book in? Sasuke doesn't remember its plot anymore.

"Oh, hey, did they walk you around the school yet? I can show you around. Konoha is so big, you gotta see it. It took me days to just cross the entire thing back in the day, when I got here. Hey, Sasuke, I see you play the guitar. Did you see Jiraiya's collection of guitars yet?"

Sasuke gets up, book in hands, to find Naruto there right next to him, too close for Sasuke's comfort. Sasuke arches an eyebrow. It makes Naruto look away (finally), perhaps a little embarrassed. Naruto fumbles with the zipper in his jacket, not looking up at Sasuke again.

"You can go back to playing," Sasuke says after several moments enjoying Naruto's embarrassment. "It's not bothering me."

"Oh," Naruto says. His face very red, his eyes very blue. "I— O-okay, then."

Naruto sits back with his cello while Sasuke lays down and opens his book. It takes several minutes for Naruto to start playing again, in which Sasuke can feel him staring at him while pretending to read his book. When he does, however, it's a suave but rhythmic melody that grabs Sasuke's full attention.

\- -

The first night, Naruto can't even sleep, he's so excited. Well, that and terrified. The thought of being unconscious with someone else in the same room is still very frightening, but Naruto believes he will get over it pretty soon. He has never been harmed in the conservatory, and he has faith it won't start now.

His new roommate watched him play for almost half an hour, Naruto remembers under the covers, feeling giddy. He is used of being watched while he plays, and he quite likes the attention, especially when playing the cello — the way the big instrument shields him from the audience makes him feel so safe.

Before dinner, Naruto offered to show Sasuke around, but the other boy must have been tired, because he didn't take Naruto’s offer. He was left watching as Sasuke organized his belongings on the side of the room Naruto cleaned for him. Somewhat apprehensive, Naruto wanted to ask if everything was all right, if the room suited his tastes, but he didn't want to seem lame to his new friend, so he stayed quiet. Sasuke didn't seem like the kind of person that cared too much about those things, he didn't even bring a lot of stuff with him.

At dinner, Sasuke barely uttered a word in the cafeteria while Naruto explained all about the school rules, the curfew, the rules to using the laundry room and everything else. He was saving his new roommate from a bunch of boring reading, but all Sasuke said was:

“Shut up. I'm eating.”

Naruto was caught off guard, but he got over it in a second. “Well, a simple ‘excuse me’ would’ve been enough,” he complained, “and a ‘thank you for explaining everything to me’ would be a very polite thing to say, y’know?”

“Hn.”

They had mashed potatoes and baby beef with vegetables that night, as it had been properly informed in the cafeteria weekly menu. Sasuke seemed to like it, at least, because why else wouldn't he talk to Naruto on his first day?

Sleep doesn't come easy, but Naruto eventually falls asleep determined to make a friendship out of this.

\- -

It's been only a few days since and already Sasuke is tired of this shit. Not only he was literally abandoned in a prison disguised as a musical institute, he now has a five-year-old child inhabiting the body of a teenager following him around everywhere he goes.

It's always “Hey, Sasuke, need some help?” or “Sasuke, did you know this? Did you know that?”. Sasuke is already sick of it. He has just managed to escape another attempt to “show him around after breakfast”. Naruto acts like he's never seen another person in his entire life. Sasuke wonders if that supposition isn't actually true. The kid must have problems.

It's late in the morning when Sasuke enters the main library; the conservatorium has more than one, he discovered (well, Naruto told him): one, the largest, for musical studies only and other two, medium sized and smaller, for the regular classes the students also attend during the school year.

Sasuke walks around for a while. It's the third or fourth time he enters the library, but he still hasn't decided where to begin. He supposed he could grab a book on electric guitars, but he also feels like he should use the opportunity to learn another instrument. Maybe violin?

(Not cello.)

His peace and quiet is short-lived, though. Soon he hears the already familiar voice of Naruto.

“Hey, Sasuke!” The kid half yells, half whispers. It's his effort to control his usually loud voice, and it fails. They are deep in the library and there are no students there in the summer vacations, so Naruto gets away with it. “Watcha doing? Oh, wanting to learn something new, huh?” He nods at the copy of _Violin for Beginners_ Sasuke is holding. Almost theatrically, the boy crosses his arms and puts a hand under his chin, as if giving something a lot of thought. “Nah, I don't think you're suited for the violin. Another instrument. But what?”

Sasuke is caught off guard with the commentary. He clutches the book tightly against his chest, feeling his nerves boiling up. Who the hell is this kid to tell him what he can and cannot play?

“Piano,” Naruto keeps blabbering, “you're much more of a piano guy. It's an instrument that requires both proximity and reverence, y’know? A teacher told me once. And you look like, y'know, clever and distant at the same time. It's cool. And it's good too to learn to play the piano because it will be easier to learn pretty much anything else later. What do you think? Ah, I know a pretty good book for beginners, it's down on the other alley, wanna come? ...Sasuke?”

Slowly, Sasuke puts the book back on the shelve. He does it slowly in order to not punch anything or _anyone_ and get in trouble on his first week, but holy shit, his hands are fists burning beside his body.

“You okay, Sasuke?”

“Stop stalking me.”

He sees the way Naruto jumps, if from his words or the way he said it, Sasuke couldn't care less. He walks past Naruto, who moves as if mentioning to follow Sasuke.

“Don't follow me,” Sasuke orders, no less menacing than if he were talking to a pet. “Stay there.”

It works. Sasuke doesn't see Naruto for the rest of the day, not even at lunch or dinner, leaving him free to enjoy an entire day of dearly beloved solitude. When he goes back to the dorm room in the afternoon, however, there is a book on his bed.

_First Lessons on Piano_.

Despite himself, Sasuke decides to open it.

\- -

Naruto always wondered how it would be like to have a roommate. Sure, Naruto had friends, tons and tons, especially during the school year, when they came back to attend the academy, and during concerts tours as well, when they came to practice. He even made a good friend a couple of days ago, Gaara, a cellist from Suna who is attending the circuit that year. However, the problem was that he _only_ had friends during those periods. He never had anyone he actually could call a best friend, or a confident (other than the social workers, that is.) He spent the better part of his adolescence wishing for someone to share his dorm with and part of his day-to-day life, because he felt so lonely.

Now, he thinks his past self foolish, because now he's got a roommate, and it's nothing like what he fantasized.

Sasuke is an asshole.

He never really talks to Naruto, unless Naruto talks to him first. He doesn't let Naruto watch him play his guitar, even though that's what he's here for, dammit. He spends most of his time in the libraries of the school, even though Naruto offered to walk him around and show everything he knows. Naruto has been living in the conservatorium since he was twelve, so he knows his way around. Yet, Sasuke acts as if he knew everything and isn't surprised by anything Naruto shows or tells him. Furthermore, he has this way of making Naruto feel stupid even for the smallest things, like being excited to show Sasuke around, or when Jiraiya has a break from his duties and uses that time to sit with Naruto in the cafeteria for lunch. Those days always made Naruto feel better, but then Sasuke made fun of him for it.

Naruto tells Sasuke what he is thinking, one day: "You are an asshole."

Sasuke only stares, because this is all he ever does, the asshole, and then says, "Takes one to recognize one."

"Well," he talks back, "you're also stupid."

This time, Sasuke doesn't say anything, just smirks and arches an eyebrow, and Naruto knows that expression means the same thing he just said.

Naruto is furious. He doesn't have a good comeback that will shut Sasuke up, though, so he just stomps out of the room.

The academy is in one of those periods when it gets filled with people despite the summer break. The reason for that this time is the annual circuit of orchestras. Every year, academies around the country gather to one of those, so their principals and national judges and all can evaluate the quality of their students and therefore the quality of the institution. Or something like that, Jiraiya explained it to him once, but Naruto didn't really pay attention.

Naruto likes when Konoha hosts it because he gets to meet people from all around the country. Sure, most of the contestants are college students and much older than he is, but they are always nice. And hey, he is getting older, he's sixteen now, he's almost reaching them and so he'll be able to make friends easier. (He hopes.) Gaara knows a lot of university students; though he is only a year older than Naruto, he’s some sort of prodigy, so he’s in the circuit this year to try a scholarship in college.

Because he's been living there for so long, Naruto kind of acquired free pass around the school anytime he wants, except past curfew. He walks around the school for a while, just watching the students and their teachers fretting over their presentations. Naruto imagines it's a lot of pressure, though he can't really relate. He's been playing all his life, so playing one more time but with people watching him wouldn't really make a difference.

"Naruto!" Someone calls for him, and Naruto instantly recognizes the uniform the person is wearing. It's Gaara. "Hi!" Naruto greets, excited, and so the day becomes better.

\- -

Naruto doesn't really feel like going back to his dorm — he almost never feels like it, except when he's upset, but he's sure Sasuke is there and Sasuke is the one upsetting him right now — so he lingers with his college friends and Gaara for as long as he can. Gaara is a better cellist than Naruto will ever hope to be, even though he’s polite enough to say the same of Naruto (which pleases him; he likes compliments). They spend the entire day practicing the play they’re gonna present in the circuit, and Naruto even manages to learn the first act. Gaara says he will ask his teacher if Naruto can play with them in the presentation, and is immediately followed by his friends’ approval, which baffles Naruto. They all seem to like him, and Naruto feels warmth all over his body when they smile at him and say, “Of course,” when he asks if it will be really okay.

Naruto is immediately excited for the presentation, but also feels uncharacteristically shy. He’s used to playing to other people, never had problems performing before, but… this is a real orchestra, from a real school. From Suna, of all schools!

Soon it's curfew time, however, and he is forced to come back before Tsunade or Jiraiya or another person from the school staff make the rounds and finds him.

Sasuke is there when he arrives, still lying down with the damn book he never finishes reading. What's wrong with that dude? Naruto walks past him without announcing he’s back, and walks straight to the bathroom to take a shower.

Later, when the lights in the whole school are shut down, Naruto lays down to sleep. He never really cared about curfew or the dark or that the lights go off exactly at eleven at night, but even after the first nights, he still has been having trouble sleeping. It still makes him anxious to have to sleep with someone else in the room, something Naruto didn't anticipate when he wished for a roommate. He would like to say he doesn’t know why, that it’s just childish monster-under-the-bad fear, but he knows it’s not the case, because Naruto hates having to spend several hours not awake with someone else next to him. He imagines all the things from before, long ago, and he feels the breathtaking despair of anxiety crawling into him through memories and then imagined scenarios, and Naruto catches himself overthinking it, and then—

"You are friends with college students?" Sasuke asks suddenly, taking Naruto away from the train-wreck of thoughts.

It takes a while for him to be able to answer. "Ah, uhm… Yeah, I... Some of them, yeah. Why?"

"No reason. I saw you talking to some of them, and I wondered."

"Yeah. Since I stay here all the time, sometimes I get to meet some nice people. But, wait, you were out there and you didn't even come talk to me? Wait. Do you wanna make friends with them too?"

"Hn."

Sasuke is prone to not answer questions. Naruto has slowly been learning, however, that Sasuke's lack of response can mean several different things at different times. He still isn't sure if he's able to translate it all efficiently, but he's pretty sure right now it means he wants Naruto to keep talking.

Naruto is more than happy to oblige. It'll keep him out of his own mind. "Hmpf. Whatever. Anyway, some of them are nice. Sometimes we play together, they teach me some stuff, I teach them other stuff. I was invited to play in an orchestra with them next week, did you know that? Just an act, though, and then my friend replaces me in the cello. But I bet it's gonna be fun! It's not even my first time, either, I used to do that all the time when I was little. Or, well, younger. Y'know, once..."

Naruto talks for as long as he can, until his own voice replaces those bad thoughts wanting to creep in. He can't be sure, but somehow he knows Sasuke is listening to him, and that puts him more at ease.

He talks until he falls asleep.

\- -

Naruto is sixteen, though he could pass by eighteen with his (incredibly good, Sasuke will admit to that) looks and well-defined body, but he acts like he's twelve. He is loud and all smiles and friendly manners all the time. He prides himself to be a laidback, easygoing kind of guy. He always manages to make people laugh. Where he passes, he manages to make friends. He is always saying that there's no bad weather with him.

Sasuke calls bullshit on all of that.

Between trips to the library and piano classes, (Sasuke decided he might as well be productive with his time and the money Shisui spent there) he's been watching. He sees the way Naruto flinches slightly with the lightest of touch from a stranger. He notices how he is always scratching the back of his head, or touching the stupid necklace he's always wearing — those are actions of someone seeking comfort, not someone who is easygoing and without a care in the world. Sasuke would know.

Naruto hates it when someone stares at him for too long, and that, truth be told, might be one of the reasons Sasuke does it so much. Paradoxically, the boy is an attention-seeking mess, as if he has starved for it all his life, which Sasuke finds it weird because, as much as Naruto seeks attention, it makes him uncomfortable.

Naruto is a mess of a person, Sasuke concludes after a little over week in the conservatorium. Perhaps this is why he intrigues Sasuke so much (not that Sasuke is willing to admit it to Naruto or even to himself): because Sasuke is another mess, one that comes from a clusterfuck of a family.

Naruto is kind, though, opposite from Sasuke. That, Sasuke cannot deny.

"Sasuke," Naruto calls from the other side of the room, where he was finishing dressing. Sasuke realizes he was staring; if Naruto noticed, he didn't flinch or acted awkward — maybe he's getting used to it? "Today me and my friends are gonna meet to practice a bit," Naruto is saying, turning around, finishing to button up his uniform shirt. "Do you wanna come?"

"Why do you wear your uniform every day? It's the middle of summer vacation."

Naruto shrugs. "I like it better. Tsunade and Jiraiya never complained." Sasuke doesn't miss the distinct too casual dismissal that means Naruto is trying to hide the fact he didn't like Sasuke's question. "Are you coming or not?"

"I have better things to do with my time."

"Oh, yeah, because playing Für Elise for five hours straight is so much fun." Naruto rolls his eyes. "Anyway, we'll be in one of the practicing rooms by auditorium three. You can come if you want. Yugito is the pianist of their orchestra. She's really good, I'm sure she won't mind giving you some tips. Hey, it'll be nice to learn more than one song, right?"

Embarrassed, Sasuke wants to punch Naruto right in the middle of his pretty face. He glares at the other boy, but, while it usually works with normal people, it does nothing to Naruto.

Naruto just shrugs again. "Well, if you wanna, we'll be there all morning, probably." With that, he grabs his cello case and then is out of the room.

Sasuke is left fuming alone in the dorm room, thinking belatedly of three hundred comebacks and another hundred ways to offend Naruto enough so that he can pay. He turns brusquely on the bed, his back to the door, and opens the book on piano lessons he's been reading. It takes him a good amount of time to concentrate on actually reading again.

\- -

"You look lonely," Sasuke says later that day, when he comes back to the room and Naruto is there, laying on his bed listening to the old portable mini radio he keeps under his pillow. He spent the entire afternoon busting his ass to learn Ode to Joy. His hands are aching, and he can't stand fucking Beethoven anymore. "Even when you're with your so called friends,” Sasuke goes on. “I bet they don't even like you."

He doesn't stop to regard the look of hurt Naruto is certainly restraining. He walks straight to the bathroom, decided to take a long, nice, cold shower. Revenge feels bitter in Sasuke's mouth, which is new, but Sasuke always felt some kind of joy in hurting people around him, so he's sure it'll pass soon enough and he'll feel the regular sense of accomplishment.

\- -

He doesn't.

\- -

Naruto doesn't talk to him for two weeks. Sasuke is taken a little aback by this. He didn't expect Naruto to be the type of person to hold grudges. He expected Naruto to be angry or hurt for maybe a couple of days, and then wake him up with one of those giant smiles and offer to show him another part of the school that Sasuke has yet to see.

Although the awkward silence contributes for Sasuke's ever-present feeling of inadequacy — that diminished whenever he was around Naruto's loudness, he was forced to realize, a little too late — to crawl back again into his being, Sasuke makes no effort to make amends. He should be the one holding grudges, after all, Naruto started it all. Then again, he was the one who spilled lies for the sake of winning an argument and protecting his pride... but Sasuke will be damned before he acknowledges it on any level.

Naruto is stubborn, Sasuke learned with this; but Sasuke can be just a stubborn. So he enjoys the sweet grotty time to learn something decent in the fucking piano.

\- -

Sasuke must be a moron.

Of course he manages to burn the only prospect of friendship in this shitbox of a place. In his old high school, Sasuke used to be the cool dude. Everyone there wanted to be friends with him. But here? Sasuke hasn't managed to make a single friend in all that sea of university students.

More and more keep arriving, apparently there is gonna some kind of event in the Academy or something. Yet, all Sasuke can get from this flood of of-age musicians is having to eventually give away every piano practicing room he enters.

Meanwhile, Naruto seems to be better than Sasuke has ever seen him. He doesn't even try to talk to Sasuke anymore, and he's out of the room from the moment he awakes until curfew.

Naruto doesn't even look at him anymore. And Sasuke be damned, his response to it is his inability to stop staring at Naruto.

Whenever they are remotely close, be it in the cafeteria for lunch, in the patio, when Sasuke tries to read a book and Naruto laughs with a bunch of college students, or in the halls, when he runs around with his cello case in his back, yelling for someone to wait for him.

(They always wait, Naruto’s friends. And Sasuke only watches. And fuck, he’s been watching so much.)

He hates the loud way Naruto laughs.

He hates that his eyes are so blue.

\- -

In the end, it's Naruto who breaks the silence: "Uhm," he says quietly one afternoon, while Sasuke is reading _The Art of War_ in his bed. Sasuke pretends not to be affected by this change of tides, but he enjoys his sweet victory for a moment before looking at his roommate.

"What."

Naruto is holding his hands in fists by his sides, fidgeting, clearly uncomfortable. He had been fretting and anxious all day, walking in circles in the bedroom, leaving the room as if to go grab something, but coming back minutes later with empty hands. He must have taken at least three showers just in the few hours Sasuke was patient enough to stay in the bedroom. Despite that, he actually smiles when Sasuke answers him. "Tonight is the concert," Naruto tells him, "I get to play with an actual real orchestra!"

His already very blue eyes seem even brighter today, his smile cheek-to-cheek, taking all of his face. Sasuke is mildly offended by the color of Naruto's eyes and the fact that his life kept going despite Sasuke's shitty past few days. "Good for you," Sasuke says, sarcastic, but Naruto doesn't get it.

"I know, right? It's so cool! I get to be with a real orchestra playing to a bunch of people _that want to hear me play_ , and the guys even let me do the entire first act! Isn't that amazing?"

Naruto talks as if it were a first to him. Sasuke rolls his eyes, but lets him babble all he wants, pretending to be concentrated in the book he's reading. The cover is actually just a cover; underneath is a tattoo magazine one of Sasuke's friends mailed him. He's thinking about getting a tattoo, maybe on his neck, once he sneaks away from the school.

"The play starts at four. You can come if you want, okay?" Naruto's voice sounds even softer than what Sasuke is used to; he guesses it is Naruto's 'I'm asking you please' tone of voice. "It would be really nice if you'd come."

Sasuke doesn't answer him — not that Naruto was expecting to hear an answer, given how fast he grabbed his cello and left the room. Sasuke once again is left behind, with no intentions whatsoever of going to the damn concert.

\- -

Sasuke finds a seat in the back of the concert hall, as far away from the orchestra as possible. He feels somewhat awkward because the hall isn't that full, there are only what he guesses are the academy judges (if they can be called that way) that Naruto had told him about.

Still, he seats there, stubborn and alone, and tells himself this is nothing. He's curious, it's all. He's never seen a live orchestra before.

It doesn't take long for the musicians to appear and take their seats. Naruto is with them, accompanied by a stern red haired dude. They both carry their cellos with them, though the guy's looks much more fancier than Naruto's.

The conductor bows to the audience, and with that, the performance starts.

\- -

Eyes fall upon him the moment he enters the stage. _Just like your father_ , immediately comes the intrusive thought. Although Naruto knows he won’t be scrutinized for his ability, not today, it doesn’t bring him any sort of comfort. _Just like your father_. The eyes seem attentive and heavy, and the too-bright lights aren’t enough to hide them.

Naruto clenches his cello tightly against his body. Eyes fall upon him, and words come with them, memories.

“You are the spitting image of your father,” they have told him, over and over again. “You’ll never be as good,” he has heard, also.

Eyes, eyes, watching him, judging him, wishing to see someone else that not Naruto. It’s too much. He will never be much. He doesn’t want this.

He feels a warm hand touching his thigh softly. Gaara’s green eyes are warm and understanding. He’ll take the second act and assured Naruto to take over even before, if Naruto wants. That’s very kind of him, but even Gaara’s kindness isn’t enough to make all the thoughts, all the memories, the hurt, his own appearance, go away.

He’s the spitting image of his father, but he has nothing.

He only has his music. His cello, his friend. And Gaara. Gaara’s warm hand is almost as overwhelming as everything else, but better, and Naruto is out of breath.

Music is the only thing he has.

He closes his eyes for a moment when the conductor tells them to start. His cello is what he has, his barrier against the eyes. The looks. Naruto breathes deeply. 

He plays.

\- -

Sasuke cannot stop looking as Naruto plays.

It is with hurt pride that Sasuke accepts he knows nothing about music. He has been in many garage concerts, many rock bands shows, but the concert in front of him is nothing like whatever he has ever heard before; all he has known his whole life are out of tune electric guitars and rattling drums. This, though, this is nothing compared to that. This is sophistication. This is class.

And, oddly enough, Naruto seems to fit right in.

Which is makes a complex juxtaposition, given Naruto’s personality. It makes Sasuke wonder. So far, all he has seen in the blond is that childlike, needy side of him, but now he’s faced with… that. A Naruto that looks his age, maybe older, moves with such class that Sasuke can only hope to mimic someday, if he ever gets be part of an orchestra.

This is completely different than what he perceived Naruto to be. This is where Naruto belongs. He can’t decide if Naruto is childish or mature, what’s his real self, but Sasuke wonders what else has Naruto hidden underneath, what else has Sasuke yet to see?

Suddenly, Sasuke wants to see it all. Whatever it is.

He watches Naruto playing according to the tempo, his blue eyes lowered to his cello, his hands carefully maneuvering the bow and the strings with proficiency. He watches Naruto’s muscles clenching and unclenching under the worn out dress shirt, and he notices himself stopping to contemplate those muscles those arms — he wants to touch the skin underneath the shirt, to be touched by those hands. He finds himself craving something the younger boy most certainly doesn’t know how to give.

Sasuke lets his eyes linger, unabashed and unashamed, on Naruto’s face — the soft curve of his lips, the color of his skin contrasting with the blond of his hair. This is a Naruto that never shows himself out there, and Sasuke wonders, hopes, if he’s the first privileged to see Naruto in that light.

He doesn’t think anyone has ever seen Naruto the way Sasuke sees him at this very moment.

When it's over, Naruto quietly stands, giving his place to the red haired musician that had been accompanying the song that whole time. Sasuke assumes Naruto will just sit back and enjoy the rest of the piece; instead, Naruto keeps walking, surprising Sasuke. Naruto doesn't lift his eyes to look at the audience, or Sasuke, or anyone, just walks away until he disappears into the musicians back room.

Sasuke considers watching the rest of the concert, but soon realizes it isn’t very interesting to him anymore. He gets up as well, and leaves through the main doors.

\- -

He doesn't get why it has to be this way. He doesn't know what he has done wrong, but he certainly screwed up really bad, because… Because damn. Damn him. Why can't he do anything right?

Naruto always thought he'd be just fine on a stage. He has been playing the cello since he was six, it's been ten years! Why is he sweating cold, why are his hands shaking now? He's nothing like his dad and at this pace he doesn't think he'll ever be. Maybe that's why dad left him behind? Breathing is so hard.

He doesn't want those thoughts to climb upon him. Not now. But it's too hard. He's always screwing things over, his whole life he—

He thought he could handle crowds. He always wanted that kind of attention, didn't he?

“You're dumb,” they told him, the foster parents he had, all four of them, and the aunties in the orphanage as well. “You can't do anything right, you're dumb, you're dumb,” and he's dumb, he's dumb. Naruto is so dumb he can't even do the only thing he knows how to do in front of an audience. He's dumb like that and mom left him and dad left too, and Naruto is so worthless he can't do anything right, not even play the cello.

Tears fall like warm cascades before Naruto can hold them. But it's okay. In the balcony of the geology lab, on the third floor of the second building, the one closest to the shed where the gardening and yard maintenance apparels are kept, Naruto is free from prying eyes. People rarely go here, especially during summer breaks. Naruto can cry all he wants, no one will interrupt him and make him feel like a bigger idiot for crying like a baby.

\- -

It’s pretty late when Sasuke opens the door to the bedroom. Soon the lights will go off and the staff will start the curfew rounds. Sasuke turns the lights on and stops at the entrance. He had been looking for Naruto all evening, checking the dorm every couple of hours, and now there he is: lying on his bed, curled up over the covers with that portable radio of his, as if nothing had happened and Sasuke hadn’t spent the entire evening walking in circles around the conservatorium.

“Where were you? It’s almost curfew.”

Naruto doesn’t answer him. “Turn the lights off.” His voice, usually loud and boisterous, now sounds hoarse, tired.

“You weren’t at dinner,” Sasuke says, turning the lights off and closing the door. “Did you eat anything?” The room falls into pitch black, the window shades closed, but still Naruto won’t answer him.

Sasuke stands by the door for a couple of minutes, motionless. The whole situation gives him a brief flashback, of his seven-year-old self standing by the door, shortly after everything went to shit and Shisui started fighting for his custody. Shisui didn’t talk a lot during that period, he just repeated over and over to Sasuke that he wouldn’t let anyone take him away. He barely slept on those days, the smell of half-drunk coffee mugs perpetually filling the house. Sasuke barely slept on those days as well, but for different reasons entirely. That night, after a particularly bad night terror, he watched hopelessly as Shisui slept in his desk, one hand still holding a pen, as if he had given in to exhaustion while working on Itachi’s defence and Sasuke’s papers for so long. Sasuke waited until Shisui woke up shaking from a bad dream to pretend he had just entered the office and woken him. Only then he got Shisui to take him back to his bedroom and stay with him for the rest of the night. 

It’s the first time he’s met with the quiet side of Naruto and, if he were to be completely honest, it’s somewhat distressing, but not surprising. Finally, Sasuke thinks. It was bound to happen at some point. Naruto could fool everyone around him, but he never fooled Sasuke.

He takes his shoes off and puts it by his side of the door, only then stepping into the fluffy mat that covers the room. Slowly, he approaches Naruto’s bed. He waits for the boy’s protest, but all he hears is the sound of ruffling sheets, probably Naruto turning on his bed, giving his back to Sasuke.

He’ll take it as the form of permission he knows it isn’t.

Sasuke sits on the floor, his back to the bed, leaning on the mattress. The portable radio in Naruto’s bed is playing some song that Sasuke doesn’t recognize. The volume is low, but the room is so silent Sasuke can hear it perfectly.

“It was good,” Sasuke tries, tactfully, “the concert, I mean. You played really well.”

“…Thanks,” comes Naruto’s quiet voice along with the song.

Naruto doesn’t tell him what happened and Sasuke doesn’t ask. They stay like that for a long time, only listening to the songs and the advertisements presented by the broadcaster. Long after the lights are turned off and the curfew staff do their routine check on the corridors, the broadcaster is saying something about some promotion the radio station is holding when the duvet ruffles slightly with Naruto’s movements.

“Did you save anything from dinner?” Naruto asks. “I’m starving.”

“No. I didn’t know you didn’t eat. Besides, there were too many people and the food went out in an instant.”

“Mm-hmm. It’s okay. It’s always like this when the circuits are hosted here. But soon the school will go back to being empty all over again.”

“Is it over already?”

“The circuit? Not yet, there are a couple more schools playing tomorrow and the day after. But a lot of people are already leaving.”

Sasuke doesn't want to ask, but at this point he can't hold himself. “Your friends...?”

“They’ll leave tomorrow morning, I think. Ah, I didn’t even say goodbye… Well, I guess I could do it tomorrow if I get up really early.”

“Hn.”

“One of my friends invited me to go study with him in Suna,” Naruto tells him, a bit more enthusiastically. “Y’know, the other cellist? It's one of the greatest music schools ever, did you know? Right beside Konoha. But it’s in another country. In Wind. They don’t accept just anyone, but they are holding scholarship auditions this year, and Gaara said that since I made friends with several teachers while I was practicing with them, they could vouch for me.”

Sasuke tries not to sound like he cares too much. “You're going, then?”

Naruto lets out a brief, mirthless chortle. “It's just a thought. Probably not. I can't really leave here. It's just… Sometimes I just want to go away, just for a little bit.”

Sasuke nods. There's a feeling he can definitely relate. “Why are you here, anyway? Why can't you leave?” Even Sasuke, being left there by his cousin, has Sunday afternoons free to go out. He went to the movies with some friends a couple of weeks ago and came back with no problems whatsoever. He’s been there for almost a month and didn’t see Naruto leave even once.

Naruto sighs. “It’s… It’s complicated. Grandma Tsunade and Jiraiya only have temporary custody of me, and only while I’m under the scholarship. They tried to have me emancipated when I turned sixteen, but social services didn’t approve it, they didn’t tell me why. They never approve anything,” he adds, sounding tired, if not resentful. “Heck, they won’t even let me go to the hospital if I get sick without threatening to take the custody away. It’s best if I just stay put, I know, it’s just…”

Sasuke lets the silence settle in as Naruto’s voice dies down. The only sound in the room comes from his radio. This late at night, the station plays soft, melancholic melodies, and Sasuke feels almost as if they are being played for him. For both of them, maybe. Sasuke is so lost in thoughts about one of the lyrics that he almost doesn’t hear Naruto’s voice again.

“My mom died when I was a baby,” Naruto whispers, almost inaudible, as if what he’s telling is a secret — maybe not so much a secret as something more powerful, buried deep down, Sasuke imagines, “and my dad committed suicide when I was four. He was a famous violinist, I don’t know if you ever heard of him. Don’t say his name,” he pleads hurriedly, even though Sasuke didn’t open his mouth to say anything. “He left me a letter saying he was sorry, but he couldn’t keep living without my mom anymore. Everyone keeps telling me that I look so much like him, that I play just like him. I wouldn’t even know. He asked me to forgive him. He hoped I followed his footsteps in music someday, because he already saw my talent even when I was little, that’s what he said.”

For a moment, Sasuke is wordless. It doesn’t matter, though, for Naruto continues, “Can you believe that? He falls asleep to never wake up again and all he leaves is a letter. Telling me to be better than him, even. He didn’t even think, he didn’t—what if I didn’t want to be better than him?”

“You’re angry at him.”

“Do you know how the orphanage was?” he snaps, though Sasuke knows it’s not meant at him. “How many foster homes I’ve been through? How many of those were even good ones?” Naruto takes a deep, shuddering breath, and that’s how Sasuke knows he’s trying and failing to hold back tears. “Sometimes I wonder, did he even think about me at all? Did he care? He asked me to forgive him, but he left me all alone. He didn’t even care.”

The sniffs are too obvious, but Sasuke realizes he doesn’t really mind the crying. It doesn’t make him uncomfortable as he thought it would; if anything, it makes him not feel an outsider.

“My brother murdered my parents and uncles right in front of me,” Sasuke is saying before he realizes it. Unlike Naruto’s, his voice isn’t shaking, he doesn’t cry, he hasn’t cried in years. He’s past that by now, all that’s left after the shock, the night terror and the tears is his anger.

Naruto halts his sniffing, but doesn’t comment. For that, Sasuke is grateful. So he goes on.

“They keep saying he didn’t know I was home at the time. But what does it even matter? I hate when they tell me to read the case file, what for? I was there. I saw it, no one else. He murdered them. He made my cousin waste away trying to defend him. He killed my mother and father, killed them all. He nearly killed Shisui after.”

Sasuke feels the warmth of Naruto’s hand on his shoulder, a soft, almost unsure touch. “I’m sorry,” Naruto whispers, followed by a hiccup. Sasuke feels like he can almost hear the tears and what they’re trying to say to him, and it feels discomposing and reassuring in equal proportions. “I’m sorry, too,” Sasuke whispers back, because there’s nothing else he could say, really. He doesn’t doubt Naruto at least _cares_.

This late at night, alone together in the dark room with only the ever-constant sound in the mini radio as a reminder that there’s an entire world on the other side of the shades, it feels like they are cloistered in a bubble. It feels… nice. Safe. For a brief time, Sasuke feels like nothing, no one can get to them, and Sasuke is another person entirely, the past is just something that happened, disconnected, long, long ago. Naruto’s hand on his shoulder is so very warm.

Sasuke turns around and halts himself up, half lying on the bed beside Naruto. He can’t see anything, still, he thinks he can make the outline of Naruto’s rosy cheeks, almost can see his big blue eyes. They are probably shiny with tears, maybe red, too. If Sasuke lifts his hand, he might just be able to touch Naruto’s blond hair.

On this month that passed he has learned that Naruto isn’t very comfortable with too much proximity, despite craving it all the time and forcing it more often than not. It’s a contradiction as maddening as Naruto’s mere presence, and part of Sasuke wants to tell Naruto to shut up, even though he’s not saying anything. If he just reached his hand a little bit…

He reaches for Naruto’s cheek, but his thumb lands on the soft skin of Naruto’s lips. Naruto jumps a little, surprised, but Sasuke shushes him. “Shh, it’s okay,” he says, softly, tracing the shape of Naruto’s lips with the tip of his finger. “It’s gonna be okay.”

He leans in.

Then, he stops, and considers. Naruto is… fragile. In this state, he might be even more, just a cracked porcelain waiting the moment to shatter behind shiny and obnoxious smiles. But then again, Sasuke _is_ damaging. He damages everyone around him, just like his brother did, why should this be different now? Why should he worry?

He leans in, and Naruto’s lips are soft and warm and better than Sasuke imagined even as he gasps and trembles, inexperienced. Sasuke presses in, uncaring; he feels welcome despite the uncertainty. He reminds himself to be patient, to go slow, and actually discovers some kind of enjoyment in that. For the first time in his life, he finds himself in control. He holds the power.

Sasuke doesn’t know what he loses himself into the most: the kiss or what he finds in it.

\- -

The summer has fully arrived and the competitions are over. Konoha Academy is like a desert except for the lack of sand, much like every other summer, but Naruto isn't very much in the mood to walk around the giant yards or venturing in the forest surrounding the conservatorium. Ever since the incident with the seniors from two years ago, the school hasn't had a pool, so all that is left is staying inside.

Which is fine, because then Naruto gets to spend time with Sasuke, who has been a lot nicer ever since… Well, ever since the night of the concert. Naruto taught him a few new songs, like Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz and Mozart’s Kyrie Eleison, and Sasuke is even listening to Naruto’s tips on how to play the piano. Now, Naruto is teaching him Satie’s Gnossiene No. 1. The melody is a bit different than what beginners are used to, but Sasuke learns real fast, and Naruto makes sure to praise him on his abilities whenever he can. That's what a good teacher should do.

“You didn't tell me you could play the piano,” Sasuke says when they take a break to stretch their hands.

“You never asked.” Naruto grins. “Just a lil’ bit, though. I took a few lessons when I came to Konoha, but got bored really fast. Then I tried the violin for a while, which was better, but nothing like my good ol’ cello.”

“So you play the violin, too?”

“Mm-hmm. But I'm not very good, honestly. It's different from the cello, it's… Ah, I don't know. It's different.”

“What else do you play?”

“Hmm. I took a few flute lessons a while ago because I always wanted to try a wind instrument. I also tried the ukulele for a while, turns out it's not really my thing. Oh, and the biwa. I love the biwa, it's my second favourite instrument. Or third? I don't know.”

“Impressive.”

Naruto can't hold the grin that invades his face. “You think so?”

Sasuke closes the fallboard and puts an elbow on it, propping his chin in his hand while he looks at Naruto. He’s looking at him weird, but it’s not malicious. “You're some sort of genius, then,” he teases, “except for being an idiot, that is.”

Naruto laughs. “Yeah, no. I'm not that good. I'm not my dad or anything, I just have too much time in my hands.”

Sasuke smirks, still eyeing Naruto. His fingers are hiding half of his mouth, but Naruto knows he's smirking by the way his eyes close slightly. Sasuke’s gaze makes Naruto a bit embarrassed and he suddenly doesn't know what to do with his hands or where to look at — Sasuke’s eyes, hands, t-shirt? He settles for Sasuke's collar bone that his loose t-shirt fails to cover completely, and the enjoys the moments of attention.

Naruto usually hates when people stare at him for too long, but when it's Sasuke, he doesn't mind that much. Sasuke's attention is different from everyone else's. He gets Naruto but doesn't pry. He asks things but doesn't mind if he doesn't get an answer, and he doesn't get angry when Naruto asks him stuff about his life, even if he doesn't always answer either.

Naruto jumps a little when Sasuke leans in and kisses him. He can't help himself, this is all too new. But he likes it. It's good, it feels nice. Naruto catches himself feeling all giddy whenever Sasuke gives him a kiss. He discovered these past few days that he enjoys kissing, but that's pretty much all. He doesn't know how to tell Sasuke that he doesn't like being touched too much, especially because Sasuke is a little loose on his hands when they're kissing, particularly when they are kissing after curfew in one of their beds. What if he doesn't like to hear that and stops being Naruto’s friend altogether?

He pulls away when Sasuke's hands drift down on his back. Naruto smiles at Sasuke, but turns back to the piano and opens the fallboard again. He is in such a good mood that he feels like playing a little bit. He rotates his shoulders twice and then, wanting to impress Sasuke, plays a very energetic version of Liszt's Consolation in E Major.

\- -

"You're saying you never left the academy?"

It's way past curfew, but Sasuke and Naruto are still up, sitting side by side on Sasuke's bed, their backs leaning on the wall behind them and only a lantern that Sasuke bought when he went to the mall with Shisui last Sunday serving to keep them from the dark. Most of their nights have been spent like this, them talking, eating junk that Sasuke bought and making out until very late in the night.

"Not _never_ never, but... Yeah, other than to visit the social workers and doctors, no. Tsunade and Jiraiya won't let me. They can't, because technically I don't have a legal guardian. They are like… Like foster parents, but not exactly? I told you I stay with them because of the scholarship, but even doctors appointments must have a social worker accompanying. Why?”

Sasuke shrugs. “No reason.” That explains a lot.

He watches as Naruto takes another chip from the bag and puts it in his mouth. He didn't turn on his radio this night, so it's completely silent apart from the noise of Naruto chewing and the occasional owls out there.

“Let's go out,” Sasuke says on a whim, but is only met with Naruto’s, “Huh?”

Sasuke points the lantern to Naruto’s face. In the dark, his eyes are more black than blue, and he squishes them shut when the light hits him. There’s a party going on tonight, my friend invited me last Sunday. His band is playing.”

“I-I don't know, Sasuke,” Naruto stutters, “I… It's risky.”

Sasuke gets up, suddenly excited, and opens a drawer to search for a pair of pants. “What's the risk? It's just a party. We're gonna leave through that hidden entrance you were talking about the other day. We’ll walk to the main avenue and take a cab from there, and we’ll be back before anyone even knows we left. Don't worry, I got money. Too bad Shisui took away my phone, or I could arrange us a ride.”

Naruto tries to argue something more, but Sasuke isn't listening. “Let's go, now.” He fishes several t-shirts and pants from the drawers, picking one of each for himself and letting Naruto pick something as well. He knows the kid’s wardrobe consists basically of school uniforms and pajamas, with some other casual t-shirt and shorts every once in awhile. Naruto is taller and his body is broader than Sasuke’s, though, so his clothes don’t fit very well except for an oversized jacket. 

Sasuke senses Naruto’s uncertainty as he’s getting dressed. “Don’t worry, you're gonna be fine. I'll take care of you. It's just a little adventure.” Besides, it's been too long since Sasuke broke a rule. He's been nothing but well behaved in this damn place he was literally abandoned, he's gotta have at least one thing. It's his duty to show the world to that naive boy, too. If it were anyone else, Sasuke wouldn't want to know what they'd try to do to Naruto.

Finally, Naruto caves, and ends up putting one of his own sweatpants and Sasuke’s jacket over his pajamas. Once they're dressed, Sasuke lets Naruto guide him to the entrance near what once was the pool. Looking from the dorm rooms building, it’s hidden behind the pool maintenance cabin, so it's easy for them to climb the gates without being seen. There are very few people in the academy during the summer, so the security rounds are scarce.

Konoha School of Music is in a quiet street, with the academy’s property taking the majority of one side of the street and the other side consisting of a few big houses. Everything is dark except for the sparse streetlights illuminating the street. Sasuke takes Naruto's hand as they walk, and the boy jumps at first. He's shaking so bad, Sasuke can't decide if it's ridiculous or adorable. He squeezes Naruto's hand in reassurance, and the other boy squeezes back.

At the main avenue, Sasuke fetches a cab for them in less than five minutes. Naruto lets go of his hand, but sits closer to him than necessary in the backseat. It’s beyond Sasuke to complain about that, so he takes full advantage of their proximity, throwing an arm around Naruto’s shoulder. His other hand goes on Naruto’s knee, carefully, testing the waters. Naruto doesn’t seem to mind; in fact, he doesn’t even seem to notice, he keeps staring wide-eyed at the city passing by the windows, the bright lights and different kinds of partying people, fascinated, as if he’s never been out in the night before.

Sasuke wonders, torn between pity and embarrassment, how close to reality his assumptions actually are.

\- -

This is unlike any place Naruto has ever been to.

He looks around, noticing how people are dressed and the way they talk, the way they walk. There’s mostly back clothes and chains and fishnets, along with bright colored hair and piercings on every part of people’s faces. Naruto can’t understand half of what they say, and can’t keep up even with music talk.

He feels like an alien that fell in a very secluded world, one he’s never seen before.

Once, at lunch, Jiraiya had told Naruto that “people see you the way you see yourself”. He usually tries to see himself under a happy perspective, but right now he wonders if people look at him and see an odd, too tall, big-footed clown in pajamas. Sasuke lent him one of his jackets, but it isn’t enough to hide Naruto’s frog-stamped pajamas underneath.

Sasuke introduced him to some people that have since moved on to another room inside the house and left him to go talk to a bunch of friends in the makeshift stage in the garage. Turns out the party is in someone’s house, and the place is crowded, too many people for such a small space. Naruto watches as Sasuke hops in the stage, holding an electric guitar. He talks something with someone and laughs, and Naruto feels a pang of jealousy. The way Sasuke laughs with those people is different from the way he laughs when he’s with him.

When Sasuke’s band starts playing, it’s nothing like Naruto has ever heard before. Of course, he’s heard rock songs, he loves the radio station that only plays classic rock. But this is different, it’s more… crude. Naruto has never been in a rock concert before, so there’s no way he could know that those people can’t play if their lives depended on it. All he hears is scream and noise, Sasuke’s electric guitar doesn’t sound like it’s been tuned up properly. The drummer is actually good, though.

“Hey,” Naruto suddenly hears a foreign voice right by his ear. He turns around and sees a man standing right behind him, too close for Naruto’s comfort. He tries to shrug his discomfort off, though, because the man smiles at him when Naruto turns. It’s the first person to smile at him all night.

“Uhm, er. Hi.”

“You don’t look like you’re having too much fun.”

Naruto doesn’t know what to answer. “...I am?”

The man laughs. “Right, right. I bet you are. I don’t think I ever saw you around here before.”

“Yeah, um. It’s my first time.”

“Really? How cute. Here.” The man lifts a plastic cup for him to take. “Give me the honor to introduce you to your first drink.”

“Ah, no, no.” Naruto raises his hands. “Sorry, I don’t think I’ll drink tonight.”

The man laughs again, and Naruto laughs too, even though he doesn’t know what’s funny. “It’s all right,” the man says, “I’ll just fetch you some water, then. You look thirsty.”

He doesn’t wait for Naruto’s reply and walks away, inside the house. Naruto turns to the stage and sees that Sasuke isn’t there anymore, he doesn’t know where he’s gone, but a girl has replaced him on the guitar. The songs being played are still awful.

The man is back a few minutes later with an open bottle of water for Naruto. Naruto is, indeed, thirsty, and it would be good to have something to hold in his hands for a while, and the man is being so nice to him when everyone else act like the same kind of asshole as Sasuke.

He takes the bottle. “Thank you.” He smiles. The man smiles back. Naruto sips the water.

\- -

“Sa-sasuke…”

Sasuke is leaning on a wall in the living room, enjoying another joint for the night while a group of people talk in a circle next to him, when he hears Naruto calling him, his voice shaken and faint. Sasuke turns to see the white of Naruto’s big eyes red, the blue shining with the feeble of a bad high.

“Shit,” Sasuke mutters, passing the joint to someone on his side when Naruto finally gets to him. “Naruto. Did you take anything?”

Naruto shakes his head. “N-no. Just water, I… I don’t know wh-what’s happening.” He’s shaking and his talk is slowed down and difficult to understand, his tongue coming out at random, as if it were suddenly numb and too big for his mouth. “I think I’m sick.”

“Who gave you the water?” Sasuke asks, angry now, but Naruto doesn’t seem to process his question. He just keeps repeating that he might’ve gotten sick, that he feels weird, if they can go home now, please.

“Suigetsu,” Sasuke calls for his friend, who is on the other end of the wall, trying to pick up some chick. He tells Sasuke to fuck off, but Sasuke insists. Naruto is staggering when he tries to walk closer to Sasuke, and Sasuke catches him before he falls. “Suigetsu, you fucker! I need your phone.”

“What, what!” Suigetsu turns, cursing at Sasuke. He stops when he sees Naruto’s head bobbing and falling on Sasuke’s shoulder, his eyes barely open. “Shit. Who drugged your boy?”

“I don’t know. Phone, dammit!”

“Fine, fine. You really should’ve kept him with you, you piece of shit. Don’t call the police.”

Sasuke realizes he’s shaking when he dials Shisui’s number. His cousin and guardian must have been working late again, because he picks up the call on the second ring. “I’m sorry,” is what Sasuke first says, hurriedly, as soon as he hears Shisui’s voice, meaning it both to the man on the other side of the line and the boy nearly falling on his knees under Sasuke’s grasp.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t know he was going to drink. I think someone put something in it.”

“Who? What drink? Sasuke, where are you?” Sasuke feels his own high kicking in, mixing unpleasantly with the alarm over the situation. It takes a couple of tries to give Shisui the address, but he manages it. “I’m calling an ambulance for you,” Shisui says.

“No!” Sasuke nearly screams, panicking now. Naruto is really falling now, completely unconscious. “He can’t go to the hospital.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, okay? He’s just. He’s fucking weird. Shisui, do something! But don’t call an ambulance.” He adds, as an afterthought, “Or the police.”

Sasuke hears Shisui sighing, long and deep. “All right. Stay there, I’m coming for you.”

With the help of Suigetsu, Sasuke manages to get Naruto out of the house. They place him in the front yard, Naruto completely passed out and spread in the grass while Sasuke sits next to him, feeling the repercussions of an incomplete high interrupted by him freaking out. Suigetsu takes his phone back and gets the fuck out of there, in case Shisui comes with police anyway; he got out of juvie just two months ago and can’t afford another mark in his record.

When Shisui arrives, Sasuke is already conscious enough despite the high to understand how pissed off he is.

“Who is this? Sasuke, hey.” Shisui snaps his fingers in front of Sasuke to elicit a response. Sasuke is still slow on his thoughts. “Who the hell is this boy?”

“Naruto.”

“Where do you know him from?”

“Konoha.”

“Sasuke, he can’t be older than sixteen.” Shisui sighs. “All right. I’m taking you two back. Help me get him in the car.”

For once Sasuke obeys.

\- -

“I can’t _believe_ the complete stupidity of those two!” They can hear Tsunade screaming even with the doors to her office closed. “What was Naruto thinking?!”

This started half an hour ago. Sasuke woke up in the school infirmary with a panicked Naruto on the other bed and an angry Shisui on the chair by his side. Shisui didn’t even have to say anything for Sasuke to know how screwed he got himself. Not that he minds too much. He’s been having a mild hangover and the worst headache ever, but isn’t worried about himself.

He’s worried about Naruto. Worried and pissed off.

Shisui was called to speak with Tsunade. This is normal procedure, Sasuke is familiar with it. He is probably gonna get detention, or maybe suspension, maybe have to clean a classroom or two. He knows Shisui will pay for whatever damage there needs paying, but Naruto?

The boy seems to be having panic attack after panic attack since they woke up. Sasuke is pretty sure this is the first time Naruto ever faced the principal’s office — if not, he truly is a giant child. Sasuke tried to speak to him, but Naruto is unresponsive. He doesn’t seem to register anything other than Tsunade’s screaming and the door to her office opening and closing; those are the only moments he stops to pay attention.

“Hey,” Sasuke calls for the third time, eyeing Naruto frantically biting his fucking nails, “stop that. You’re pissing me off.”

“They’re gonna take me away,” Naruto is muttering to himself. His eyes are two giant balls of blue despair, he doesn’t respond when Sasuke calls him, doesn’t even listen, just repeats and repeats, “They’ll take me back. They’ll take me away. Why is this happening, what am I gonna do?”

Sasuke doesn’t know what to do anymore. Naruto is so absolutely sure every adult in his life holds absolute authority over him, the mere thought of being sent back to social services or foster homes (even though he’s already sixteen, Sasuke pointed out several times that morning) puts him in a complete state of desperation.

“They’ll take me away. They’ll take me back…”

Naruto draws short, noisy breaths. It looks like it’s difficult for him to breathe.

Suddenly, Shisui walks out from the office. Tsunade is still screaming inside, but Jiraiya seems to be trying to calm her down. Sasuke eyes his guardian, who eyes him back, silent. He glances at Naruto briefly, but is more focused on Sasuke, definitely furious.

Sasuke glares at him. He’s furious too. Everything just spiralled out of control, but Sasuke doesn’t care to hear Shisui’s lecture right now. His will is to flounce and scream against Shisui’s chest, like he did when he was a child, that this isn’t his fault and that he never meant to. But there are more important matters right now.

He turns his back to Shisui and kneels in front of Naruto, taking his hands. Naruto doesn’t flinch nor moves away, but doesn’t seem to respond to the touch either. His eyes are entirely focused on the principal’s door.

“Naruto, listen to me. They can’t take you away. You’re not a child anymore.”

“They can, they can. They’ll take me back, I can’t do it, I can’t go back…”

“Naruto…”

“I like it here, why do I have to go back?”

“You don’t have to. You’re no longer a child, no one can get to you anymore.”

But it’s useless. Sasuke is nothing against Naruto’s anguish, he doesn’t stop freaking out no matter what Sasuke says or does.

He turns back to Shisui, exhausted and angry at Naruto’s unrelenting despair and his own uselessness. “Well, don’t just stand there!” Sasuke demands, yelling. “Shisui, do something!”

For a few moments, Shisui watches them impassively. After what feels like forever, he turns around and walks back to Tsunade’s office, closing the door behind him. Knowing he won’t be of much help trying to calm Naruto down, Sasuke crosses the corridor and presses his ear against the door.

Tsunade and Jiraiya are speaking rushedly in uneasy tones, but Shisui sounds calm, collected. Sasuke can’t make all the conversation, but he does hears, “Don’t report it. He’s a victim of my cousin. Sasuke will take full responsibility and no word needs to get out about the whole ordeal.”

That seems to halt the other two. The room sounds quieter, but there are still sounds of hushed conversation, chairs being dragged around and frantic typing.

Half an hour later, Shisui comes out again. Sasuke is sitting by Naruto’s side, pretending he had been there the whole time. Shisui eyes him briefly, and then kneels in front of Naruto. He has a bunch of papers in his hands that he wasn’t carrying before. “Naruto,” Shisui calls, the softest tone Sasuke has seen Shisui use in years. He lifts Naruto’s chin delicately, as one might do with a porcelain doll in the verge of breaking apart. “No one is going to take you anywhere, okay? You’re gonna be fine.”

Sasuke doesn’t know what makes it — that Shisui spoke in the gentlest way possible or that he’s a full grown adult (or maybe Shisui just has that kind power?) — but Naruto’s attention focuses completely on him. “Really?” he asks, hopeful, and when Shisui smiles and nods, Naruto lets out a deep breath. “Thank you.”

“You just need to calm down now, okay?”

“Okay.”

Shisui ruffles Naruto’s hair and, baffling, gives him a quick peck on his forehead. He gets on his feet again, and when he looks at Sasuke, all the gentleness in his eyes are gone. “Let’s go, Sasuke.”

Sasuke follows without question, certain that he won’t get out of the lecture of the year even if he tries. He looks back once to see Jiraiya and Tsunade kneeling in front of Naruto, the principal bringing him into an embrace. It looks like an intimate moment, and Sasuke feels a pang in his chest knowing it’s a sad one, too, and he’s the cause of it.

Shisui orders Sasuke to lead them to the room he shares with Naruto. Sasuke relaxes his body and ears once they’re there, ready for Shisui’s scolding, but his guardian tells him to pack his belongings instead. “Why?” Sasuke asks. Shisui smooths the papers he’s holding, adjusts them evenly at the margins, and it occurs to Sasuke that Shisui actually _did something_ to fix the problem, as Sasuke demanded; there, in his hands, is the agreement.

“You’ve been expelled.”

\- -

Konoha School of Music is one of the largest conservatoriums in the world. Certainly the most prestigious in the country. Just to get Sasuke to summer school cost a fortune, Shisui tells him, and now he goes and gets himself expelled. Sasuke wants to defend himself by attesting that it wasn’t him who signed the agreement, but he knows what Shisui meant and he knows, yeah, that was all his fault.

“And that poor kid,” Shisui is saying, as Sasuke watches the gates of Konoha passing by as they drive away. “Do you have any notion what he’s been through? What could have happened if I didn’t get a settlement? Do you even understand the possible repercussions of your actions, Sasuke?”

He does. “No,” he says, to appease Shisui. That puts him in a rampage, and he trashes Sasuke’s poor life choices as if he’s on a marathon to do so. Now all he can see is the top of Konoha’s main building through the rearview mirror, and Sasuke keeps watching the building until it completely disappears.

He thinks of Naruto as Shisui scolds him. There are a range of emotions running through Sasuke right now, but the most prominent one is resignation. In the end, Naruto didn’t even come to say goodbye, but Sasuke is willing to suspect he wasn’t allowed. Naruto never let anyone leave before saying goodbye, not even one of his friends. Was Sasuke his friend? After that whole time, Sasuke wasn’t able to figure out if Naruto is critically childish or actually really mature. (Maybe he’s both.) That upsets him, too. He didn’t mean anything that happened.

Shisui lets himself scold Sasuke and swear until his voice is hoarse, and then he goes mute for a long time. Sasuke kind of wants to turn the radio, but he’s not willing to mess with Shisui’s mood right now, so their entire ride is completely silent after Shisui stops talking.

They’re already in their town when Shisui coughs and says, quietly, “There’s something I should tell you before we get home.”

Sasuke waits for it, and when Shisui fails to continue, he prompts, “What?”

He doesn’t miss how Shisui grips the wheel with more force than necessary. “I had been working in your brother’s case for a long time in order to get him a parole. Last month I got Itachi’s incarceration conditions downgraded. He’s now under house arrest.”

Sasuke’s entire body freezes.

“That’s why I sent you to summer school,” Shisui continues before Sasuke can talk. “I didn’t want to create… I didn’t want any more unnecessary conflict. I was afraid you wouldn’t take it well, but you need to understand, Sasuke—”

“Shisui,” Sasuke cuts him. “What does it mean? House arrest? What house?” he asks, afraid of the answer.

Shisui breathes deeply. He is still gripping the wheels tightly, but he locks his gaze with Sasuke’s when he reveals, “Our house. He’s gonna be living with us from now on.”

Sasuke can’t contain the embarrassing noise of his breath catching mid-inhale. “Wha…What the _fuck_? What the hell are you saying? You put that—that _murderer_ in my home? In my bedroom too, is what you’re gonna say next?”

“Sasuke, you don’t understand the context—”

“The context? Of what? Of how he killed my parents right in front of me? Your uncles and aunts, Shisui! I was there!” Shisui asks Sasuke to just stop and listen to him for a minute, but Sasuke is livid. He’s yelling now. “You weren’t there! I was. For you it was easy, defending him after everything, but you didn’t see what I saw. You weren’t there! I can’t believe you did this to me.”

“Sasuke, please—”

“Fuck you! You traitor!”

“Enough,” Shisui screams, but it’s not like Sasuke’s screams, anguished and dissonant, like Sasuke himself. It’s a rich baritone that demands respects and causes Sasuke to lose the strength to fight back. “Sasuke, enough. You don’t understand everything, all the circumstances…” His eyes are on the road, but he closes them briefly, takes a deep breath. “It’s in part my fault. I never explained to you, I never pushed you to read the case. I didn’t want to cause more distress.”

Sasuke can only look. Shisui’s words don’t really sink in, all he can hear is _Itachi is home, Itachi is home_.

Shisui eyes him briefly. “We’re settling this.” His tone is final. “Our family is gonna be okay.”

“Why?” Sasuke asks after long minutes, unable to hold himself. “Why are you doing this to me? I said I was sorry.” His voice fails, lame and weak and unimportant, like Sasuke’s own existence in Shisui’s life. He’s nothing compared to Itachi for Shisui, all the long hours he worked to defend him in court, even after Sasuke begged him to stay home with him. He means nothing.

“We’re gonna be fine, Sasuke,” Shisui reassures him, but Sasuke recognizes it for the lie it is. Sasuke still smells the metal of all that blood. It’s never gonna be fine.

Liquid warmth streams down his face, and he’s no better than the child that used to wake up terrified at night. Dammit.

Sasuke lowers his head and nods, and that seems to appease Shisui. He tries to control his own tears and waits patiently until the car stops at a red light. In one swift movement, Sasuke unclasps the seat belt and opens the door. “Sasuke!” Shisui screams the moment the door is opened. He tries to grab Sasuke’s arm, but Sasuke is faster. He yanks his arm, twists when Shisui tries to grab him by the collar of his jacket. He frees himself from the grasp by abandoning the jacket altogether in his cousin’s hands. “Sasuke!” Shisui screams again when Sasuke bolts to the other end of the avenue, nearly getting himself ran over by a car in the process. “Sasuke!” he hears one more time, but Sasuke doesn’t stop, just runs, runs, runs, leaving the piece of clothing and the clusterfuck that is his family behind. He turns the first corner he sees, and then another, and another, and with that, he’s out.

\- -

“I want to study abroad,” Naruto states, adamantly.

Tsunade is sitting on her chair in her office in front of him and Jiraiya is sitting by his side. Jiraiya looks amused while Tsunade arches an eyebrow, clearly displeased. “Where is this coming from?”

Naruto shrugs. “Nowhere. I just was looking and saw that Suna Academy is holding scholarship auditions next month, and I thought I could try.”

“Looking _where_?” Tsunade asks at the same time Jiraiya says, “Suna, huh? Isn’t that the school you performed with during the circuits?”

Naruto nods. “All the teachers said they could vouch for me if I applied. They said they really liked me!”

Tsunade and Jiraiya exchange a look. Naruto swallows, trying not to appear nervous. He is very nervous, actually. He’s been thinking about this conversation for weeks, rehearsing how he was going to say things, making sure he got the “are you sure” thing covered. Ever since Sasuke decided to leave without saying goodbye, Naruto has been thinking, wondering, wishing for _more_. Although he is enjoying the familiar and comfortable safeness of sleeping alone, he also misses having a roommate around, someone of his age to talk to, hang out and show around. He had that for a while and he really liked it. He wants more.

Tsunade looks back at Naruto. “And I suppose you have already signed up, for sure.”

Naruto nods, smiling broadly. Tsunade sighs.

“Naruto, you know that’s now how social services—” Naruto flinches; he hates that term “—work, don’t you?”

“Aw, c’mon, Tsunade, give the boy some slack.” Jiraiya crosses his legs and puts a hand on his chin, thinking. “Isn’t Suna the one that invited me to replace a teacher for a semester?”

“You thinking of taking the offer?” Tsunade asks.

“Well, if we can get the kid there, it wouldn’t harm if his guardian was there as well, no? It certainly will help our case, it might get approved.”

Naruto observes as Tsunade thinks it through. “It might. Though we’ll need a lawyer, probably, you know how that last motherfucker nearly screwed us over.”

“And we do know a competent lawyer, no?” Jiraiya tilts his head, catching Tsunade’s eyes. Naruto has no idea who they’re talking about, but he’s heard both of them trash talking public lawyers in the past. The last one assigned to take care of Naruto’s papers when he was coming to Konoha was so neglectful he nearly put everything to lose. Naruto would still be in foster care if Tsunade hadn’t gone to his office screaming at him to do his job, that much Naruto knows of.

“Hm. Fine, we can try. But Naruto.” She turns to him before he can explode in excitement. They agreed! “It’s gonna be a hard sell. Don’t get your hopes too high, we’ll only know for sure when it’s done, okay?”

“Sure! Okay!”

“Now get out, both of you. I have work to do. And Naruto, behave.”

Naruto leaves her office with a grin plastered all over his face. Jiraiya is laughing and ruffling his hair, saying that if Naruto keeps behaving and thinking positively, it might work. Then they’re gonna go travelling together! Naruto reaches for his old cell phone once their part ways, Jiraiya going to his office and Naruto to his bedroom. His phone is an old one that Tsunade gave to him when he first got there, as a belated birthday gift, four years ago. He taps on the keyboard until he finds the number he had been dying to contact for what feels like forever now. Naruto had been trying to find a reason to send a message for weeks — for all summer, truthfully, since the very moment he went back home.

To: Gaara. _”Hi! It's me. I have good news!”_ Naruto types. _”Well, maybe. Hopefully.”_


End file.
